I realise you all probably come here to escape the endless mundane questions thrown at you either as part of your jobs or just because you are intellectual power houses.

Well I have another said mundane question that hopefully one or more of you may be able to help me with, just out of the goodness of your hearts.

Enough sucking up??? Ok here it is...

I have some sort of trojan or worm or something that is screwing up my search engine... namely Google.
I can search any topic I like but when I click on a link I get sent to random sites that may or may not have anything to do with the original search.

Anyone got any ideas how to clear this annoying weed out of my machine?

1) Never use Microsoft's Internet Explorer to browse the web. Use anything else and you'll avoid a large chunk of problems. Use Firefox (It'll use your old bookmarks!) and throw on some ad-blocking add-ons to be safe. Accidentally clicking on ads is the easiest way to end up with a virus.

2) Keep your Windows up to date with patches and security fixes.

3) Use a good spyware/malware/adware blocker and remover. Spybot Search and Destroy , or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware are two excellent freebies. Check your system once a week minimum.

4) Use a good anti-virus program. Windows Defender is supposed to be great but I use AVAST! (it's free!) and it kicks ass just fine. Check your system once a week to be safe.

5) Use Dogpile or some other meta-search site: it'll run your search through 3-4 different search engines at once with the same accuracy as the hosting search engines.

6) Be aware that some viruses can spread via Thumb/Jump/Mini/USB drives. Just like sex, if you don't know where it's been, you might want to think twice about plugging into it.